The mandatory evacuations began about 7 p.m. for residents of 25 homes along Linda and Nogales drives, near Webb Chapel Road, Atmos said.

Hundreds of nearby homes have been without natural gas for weeks as crews replace thousands of feet of outdated pipes. These homes were not among those in the outage zone.

Residents of 18 units of the Chapel Creek apartment complex in the 3400 block of Nogales were also required to leave Wednesday night.

Another section of the Chapel Creek complex on Hidalgo Drive was evacuated last month.

The company said it is working directly with residents but did not offer an estimated timeline for when people will be allowed to return to their homes.

Atmos crews work in an alley between Linda Drive and Nogales Drive in Dallas on Wednesday, March 28, 2018. Atmos crews responding to a natural gas smell Wednesday evening evacuated 25 homes in the same northwest Dallas neighborhood where a girl was killed last month in a house explosion.

(Rose Baca/Staff Photographer)

Paco Medina watched from his family's home across the street as neighbors evacuate their homes on Linda Drive in Dallas on Wednesday. Atmos crews responding to a natural gas smell Wednesday evening evacuated 25 homes in the same northwest Dallas neighborhood where a girl was killed last month in a house explosion.

(Rose Baca/Staff Photographer)

Catalina Coronado (far right), her sister Karime Coronado and brother (did not want to give name) evacuated their home on Nogales Drive in Dallas on Wednesday, March 28, 2018. Atmos crews responding to a natural gas smell, evacuated 25 homes in the same northwest Dallas neighborhood where a girl was killed last month in a house explosion.

(Rose Baca/Staff Photographer)

Dallas City Council member Omar Narvaez, who represents District 6 where the gas leaks have taken place, said Wednesday that the evacuations were expected to last just one night but that Atmos is prepared for the necessary repairs to take two nights.

"Unfortunately the evacuations that happened tonight is not something any of us were wanting obviously or expecting," he said, " but at the same time, everybody is safe, everybody is taken care of and we're looking forward to getting through this crisis and everybody coming out better than where they were when we started."

Wednesday's evacuations happened blocks from the house on Espanola Drive that exploded Feb. 23, killing a 12-year-old girl and injuring others. In the two days after the blast, Atmos discovered at least 28 gas leaks in the neighborhood, according to company emails.

The energy company cut off service to 2,800 residents in the neighborhood and has been working to replace 152,000 feet of pipe and 2,435 service lines.

Atmos said Monday that it had completed the process of replacing steel pipes, which can be more vulnerable than other types to leaks, with High-Density Polyethylene pipe and that more than 80 percent of customers were using natural gas in their homes again.

Atmos had been aware of gas leaks in the neighborhood since Jan. 1, according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board, the federal agency investigating the deadly blast.